


looking glass

by falseintrospective (BoyGirlBothNoneImTheUniverse)



Series: writing assignments [4]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Bad Touch, Childhood Memories, Childhood Trauma, F/M, Festivals, Gen, Implied Childhood Sexual Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Loss of Innocence, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Non-Consensual Touching, POV Child, Pedophilia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-28
Updated: 2019-05-28
Packaged: 2020-03-20 19:01:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18998620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BoyGirlBothNoneImTheUniverse/pseuds/falseintrospective
Summary: Kayla looks up at the man beside her and studies his game. Balloons are hung up on some type of board, on one side hangs cheap stuffed animals, the other surrounded by mirrors. Kayla loved Harvest Festival mirrors. She isn’t exactly sure why they’re called mirrors, they don’t even show your reflection, but she hasn’t ever heard them called anything else. In small white cardboard frames, mirrors were really just pictures with a square of glass in front of them. They range from football teams to cute pictures of cats playing with yarn. They’d been a staple at every Harvest Festival she’d ever been to. The last mirror she won was with her daddy, before he had to go away to jail. The picture of a sleepy kitten had made her giggle every time she looked at it before she went to bed. Now, it was a reminder that her daddy was gone.





	looking glass

**Author's Note:**

> General Warning: any non-con, child abuse, pedophilia mentions are all IMPLIED. Nothing but some simple inappropriate, above the neck, touching occurs. I've been told that this story left several readers uncomfortable, regardless of the fact that these things are not stated, only implied, so please read with caution.

Kayla clung to her mother’s arm, her eyes ravenously taking in the booths around her. One booth held a small swimming pool filled with bright yellow rubber ducks. Another booth, which held two basketball hoops, was occupied by two teenage boys. Kayla watched them spin the balls in their hands, their eyes intent as they lined up their shots, the ball hitting the rim and bouncing back towards them. 

Her mother pushed forward against the crowd, causing Kayla to turn her attention to her grip on her mother. Kayla wasn’t very fond of crowds, too many people in a concentrated place, but she loved playing the games at the Harvest Festival. Her mother took her every year, waking her up early on Sunday mornings, the last day of the festival, to take part in some of the available games. Kayla got fifteen dollars to spend on any games she wanted. Usually they would walk leisurely around the area, but Kayla knew that her mother was eager to return home to watch the football game that would be on TV at noon. 

Kayla stumbled over her feet slightly as he mother tugged on the arm in Kayla’s grasp. Kayla’s shoe clipped her mother’s foot and she winced, loosening her grip on her mother’s arm. Kayla has been warned plenty of times that she shouldn’t stay so close to her mother while they’re walking. She’s always stepping on her toes and clipping her with the grocery cart because she sticks too close. She transfers her grip from her mother’s arm to the bottom of her t-shirt in apology. 

Kayla takes the chance to look around, spying a booth with multiple water guns occupied by five different kids. An assortment of balloons was being blown up, all the different sizes testifying to who had better aim. A big, green balloon erupts, and a girl jumped from her seat, cheering in triumph. Her cheering is being mirrored by the boy in the next booth, his excitement apparent as he’s handed a fish in a large baggy. 

“Hey! You look like someone with good aim! You want to try your hand at some darts?”

Kayla looks up at the man beside her and studies his game. Balloons are hung up on some type of board, on one side hangs cheap stuffed animals, the other surrounded by mirrors. Kayla loved Harvest Festival mirrors. She isn’t exactly sure why they’re called mirrors, they don’t even show your reflection, but she hasn’t ever heard them called anything else. In small white cardboard frames, mirrors were really just pictures with a square of glass in front of them. They range from football teams to cute pictures of cats playing with yarn. They’d been a staple at every Harvest Festival she’d ever been to. The last mirror she won was with her daddy, before he had to go away to jail. The picture of a sleepy kitten had made her giggle every time she looked at it before she went to bed. Now, it was a reminder that her daddy was gone.

She stops, standing firm as her arm extended and tugged her mother to a stop. 

“I want a mirror!” she cried, tugging her mother toward the stand. This would be a good time to win a new mirror, one with her mother, so that she wouldn’t have to think about her missing daddy.

“Alright,” her mother nodded, allowing Kayla to pull her over to the grinning man.

“Welcome! The name’s Hugh. Darts is the game. You think you’ve got what it takes?”

Kayla nodded eagerly, eyeing all the different mirrors.

“Alrighty, then. One balloon is a stuffed animal, two is a mirror, three is both. Three darts for five dollars,” Hugh says, reaching into the pouch around his waist. He handed the darts he retrieved to her after her mother gave him a crisp five-dollar bill. 

Kayla starts to line up a shot at an orange balloon. It’s slightly bigger than the balloons around it, and she’ll have a better chance at hitting that one then any of the smaller ones. She sticks her tongue out, biting down as she aims and fires the dart. She let out a cheer when the balloon promptly pops.

“Wow! Way to go!” Hugh whistled, his tone impressed. “I’ll tell you what, if you can get a second balloon, I’ll give you two mirrors, instead of one.”

Kayla gasped, “Two mirrors!?”

“Any two you want,” Hugh nodded, grinning back at her.

“Watch me!” she insisted, not wanting him to get out of his agreement.  

Hugh laughed at her enthusiasm. Kayla makes sure his eyes are focused on her as she squares her feet behind the red tape line. She zeroes in on a blue balloon in the top right corner of the board. She aims, tongue sticking out once more, and lets the dart fly. She hisses in frustration when she just skims the balloon.

“Tough luck,” Hugh says, reaching low to pat her on the back. He rested his hand on her shoulder and squeezed lightly in reassurance. “You still have one more dart though.”

Kayla shifts, shrugging Hugh’s hand off her shoulder so he’s not overbalancing her arm and messing with her aim. She doesn’t let herself think as hard on this shot, worried that her second guessing herself is what made her miss the last balloon. She aims at the same blue balloon and quickly lets the dart fly. To her delight, she hits the balloon dead in the middle. She lets the resounding pop rush over her in victory and she turns to Hugh with a grin on her face.

“Way to go!” Hugh congratulated her, his hand finding her shoulder again. When he moves it off her shoulder, he runs his fingers through her hair in an affectionate ruffle.        

He walks away from her and jumps into the stand, heading for the corner with the mirrors. “What can I get ya?”                                                                                                                                                

Kayla studies the mirrors intently, crossing off her options as she goes. She’s almost through the football section when she sees orange. A Cleveland Browns football helmet is one of the pictures offered. She turns to glance at her mother, subtly taking her in. She’s glancing down at her phone and up at Hugh, a small frown on her face. Her shirt has an elf with a Browns shirt smiling as he pees on a Pittsburgh Steelers helmet. Kayla hears how much her mother loves the Browns all the time. She turns back to Hugh and points at the Browns mirror.

“That one, please,” she says, making sure her finger is pointed directly at the desired mirror.

“Oh! Browns fan are ya?” He cups the back of her hand, holding it steady as he hands the fragile mirror to her. “Be careful,” he says with a wink, pulling back and heading back over to the wall.

Kayla places the mirror onto the counter in front of her and continues scrutinizing the selection. She struggles to pick between a mirror with two kittens cuddling and one with a pony. She eventually picks the kittens, hoping that she could put it up to replace the one she’d won with her daddy.

“Good choice,” Hugh nods, handing her the mirror. He leaves his hand held out, watching her intently.

Kayla blinks, looking at the hand blankly, before she puts the mirror down. She steadies it on top of the other one and then reaches out to shake Hugh’s hand. His hand is so big compared to hers, his tanned skin dirty looking when set next to her soft, pale pallor. 

“Thank you,” Kayla says shyly. Her mother always taught her to say please and thank you to people who have been nice to you, thought it always made Kayla feel shy and awkward. 

“It was my pleasure, little lady,” Hugh says with a small laugh, squeezing her hand slightly before letting go and stepping back. “You enjoy those pretty pictures.”

Kayla nods, grabbing the mirrors from the counter and bouncing over to her frowning mother. “Mom!” Kayla shouts, grinning up at her. Her mother’s gaze rests on Hugh’s form as he instigates another little girl and her mother. Kayla frowns when she isn’t acknowledged. “Mom?”

Her mother blinks suddenly, glancing down at her with wide eyes. 

“You okay?” Kayla asks, a small tremor entering her meek voice. Her mother looked weird, a twisted expression on her face. Kayla doesn’t remember ever seeing her mother looking quite that wild before.

“I’m fine, Kay,” her mother reassures her, glancing up again at Hugh before turning her full attention to Kayla. “What mirrors did you get again?”

Kayla let her grin return as she happily presented the Browns mirror to her mother.

“Oh!” her mother gasped in surprise, reaching out to carefully take the mirror from her. “You didn’t have to get me this.”

“I wanted to,” Kayla insists, her face hurting from how big her smile had gotten. She wasn’t old enough to make any money, so gifts to her mother usually included hand drawn cards and a bundle of flowers stolen from various yards around the block. Being able to give her mother something like a mirror made her feel accomplished.

“Well, I appreciate it very much,” her mother smiles, leaning forward to kiss Kayla on the forehead. “W should get something to eat.”

“Oh! French fries!” Kayla shouts in excitement, jumping up and down. The smells of various food stands always permeated the air at the Harvest Festival, but Kayla could always track down the french fry stand. One of her mother’s friends worked in the stand and Kayla always got extra fries because of it.

Her mother laughs and takes the other mirror from Kayla’s grasp, complimenting it before she puts both mirrors into her bulging purse. Kayla takes her hand and tugs her away from the games area of the festival. The crowd has thinned a bit and it leaves Kayla in a much better mood for the rest of the walk to the food stand. 

Kayla hops into the small line at the stand and rocks back and forth on her heels. Her mother taker out her phone and starts typing something, the frown from earlier reappearing. 

“What’s got you frowning?”

Kayla spins around and looks up at the man standing behind her.

“Deputy Doodle!” Kayla screams, her eyes widening in excitement.

Technically speaking, Deputy Doodle was not a deputy, nor was his name Doodle. Sheriff John Kane was a good friend of her mother’s. Kayla doesn’t remember her first time meeting the sheriff, but she does remember the subsequent meetings where he would visit their house. He would always let her put on his sheriff’s hat, insisting that he was just the deputy to her sheriff. The sheriff was always doodling notes onto his hand, claiming that he can accidentally lose a piece of paper, but he’d notice if he lost his hand. He was the one that sat her down and told her that even thought her daddy was gone for a while, that didn’t mean he didn’t still love her.     

“Hey, bug,” John smiled in acknowledgement, flicking at her nose.

“Hello, John,” her mother says, her tone of voice much more subdued. Her mother sighs, glancing down at her phone before she meets John’s concerned gaze. “Could I talk to you in private?”

John’s forehead scrunched up in concern. “Sure, Deb.”

“Stay right here,” her mother tells her as she searches through her purse. She hands Kayla a five-dollar bill before resituating her purse onto her shoulder. “Get a small fry and stay right next to the stand, okay? I won’t be far and I won’t be long. Karen!” A blonde women in the fry stand turns, smiling when she sees Kayla’s mother. “Could you watch Kayla for just a second?”

“Not a problem,” Karen replies, handing an elderly man a large fry. 

Kayla watches in confusion as her mother leads Deputy Doodle away from the main drag. They s top a good distance away, half hidden behind a tree. Kayla glances at the complaining woman in front of her, taking in her angry posture and Karen’s subsequent bullheaded frown. She won’t notice anything amiss until the screeching lady in front of Kayla is gone.  Biting her lip, she takes one glance towards her mother before stuffing the money in her shorts’ pocket and heading toward where her mother is talking with the sheriff. 

“He was acting weird, John,” her mother hisses, wringing her hands tightly. Kayla plants herself around the corner from the tree and does her best to tune out the hustle and bustle from the crowd behind her. “So, I checked the database. I usually do it on Mondays when Kayla is in school, but he just rubbed me the wrong way. I found him, John! Registered and everything. He’s not even supposed to be around kids!”

“And you’re sure it’s him?” John asks gravely, his face severe.

“It’s most definitely him. Same face, same eye color. Granted, he does have a different hair color, but brown to black isn’t that big of a leap, John. Do you know his registered address is a street away from mine?”

“Shit,” John curses, running his hand through his hair. Kayla’s eyes widen at the curse, her hand covering her mouth as she lets out a small gasp. Her mother holds her phone up to John’s eyesight and he curses again at whatever is on the screen.  Kayla had never heard Deputy Doodle cuss before.

“How the fuck did he get permission to run a stand?!” John shouted, his voice a harsh growl as he reaches for his portable radio. Kayla pulls her head back around the corner, gasping again at the curses leaving his mouth. Kayla winces at the loud sound, instinctively knowing she got herself caught. She looks up and meets her mother’s angry gaze. “Kayla--,” her mother starts, but before she can really start yelling, Kayla picks herself up and runs back to the French fry stand, sliding into place at the service window.

“One small fry please,” she gasps out, pulling the crumpled five-dollar bill out of her pocket and shoving it at Karen. Karen is wearing a sour expression, probably because she lost sight of Kayla while arguing with the rude customer earlier, taking the money and handing Kayla back a dollar bill.

Kayla struggles to catch her breath, her heart beating quickly as she glances around to make sure her mother didn’t see her making her quick escape. Her mother’s profile is still hidden behind the tree as Deputy Doodle shouts something into his radio.

Kayla lets out a sigh of relief and graciously thanks Karen when she hands her a carton of hot fries. She heads over toward a small table situated next to the stand and shakes salt onto them while they’re still hot. She squirts lines of ketchup across the top of her fries. Kayla stays where she is this time, slowly eating her fries once they’ve cooled down. 

“They good?” 

Kayla blinks, glancing up at Hugh’s smiling face. She nods, subdued after her spying.

“Can I have one?” Hugh asks, reaching out and taking a fry before she can answer. 

Kayla frowns, but she allows it anyway, more worried about what her mother was talking about then having her fries stolen. She pops another fry into her mouth, smearing ketchup around her lips.

“Oops! Got a little something,” Hugh gasps, his shock sounding fake. He reaches forward and brushes the ketchup off with his thumb, sliding his dirty fingers across her lips. His thumb slides into her mouth and she jerks back, her eyes wild with uncertainty. 

Hugh just smiles, licking the ketchup residue off his fingers. “I never did catch your name.”

Kayla hesitates, her hands suddenly sweating and feeling shaky. She swallows, her spit thick in her mouth, and replies, “K-Kayla.”

“It was so nice getting to meet you, Kayla,” Hugh says with a massive grin. He perks up, looking at something behind her, before he smiles at her, his eyes not matching the grin. “It looks like I have to go. See you around.”

Kayla watches him go, barely registering when her mother reaches her. Kayla has no answers for her worried questions. She feels different, like something was stolen from her. Kayla turns to meet her mother’s worried gaze and she wonders what exactly just happened.  

**Author's Note:**

> another old writing assignment


End file.
